Southwest Airlines Flight 1338
Southwest Airlines Flight 1338 was a scheduled flight from San Diego International Airport to Houston-Hobby International Airport, with a layover at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport. On July 17, 2021, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed into the Gila National Forest located in New Mexico, killing 166 of the 171 people on board. The crash is also known as the Gila air tragedy, after the location where the crash occurred. The crash remains the deadliest crash of a Southwest flight, and the deadliest aviation incident in the state of New Mexico. The crash occurred when a malfunction in the plane's electrical system caused the navigation system and radar to shut down, resulting in the plane flying through a summer monsoon whilst over Arizona. Extreme winds caused violent turbulence, enough to snap the tail off of the plane, shutting down all hydraulics to the plane, resulting in the pilots being unable to properly maneuver the plane. The plane gradually lost altitude, and traveled another 80 miles before slamming into the side of a mountain. Aircraft The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737 MAX 8, and was built in Wichita, Kansas, and was leased to Southwest Airlines on March 7, 2019. The aircraft had 168 passenger seats, 3 seats in the cockpit for the pilot, first officer, and flight engineer, and 3 seats in the tail for flight attendants. 4 flight attendants were from the United States, and the other 2 were from Mexico. The pilot of Flight 1338 was Armando Perez, 52, and had 5,500 hours of flight time. 37 year old first officer Julia Woodlock had 4,000 flight hours, and flight engineer Michael Felkey, 40, had 2,700 hours of flight time. Accident Flight 1338 departed from San Diego at 10:31 am local time, and landed in Phoenix at 12:45 pm local time. The took off from Phoenix an hour later at 2 pm local time. The plane headed east-north east, and just 20 minutes after take-off, an undetected malfunction in the planes electrical system manifested itself in the form of cutting off power to the aircraft's radar and navigation systems over the San Carlos Reservation. As the crew members in the cockpit tried to get the systems back online, a strong summer monsoon straight ahead went unnoticed by the flight crew. At 2:32 pm local time, the plane entered the strong thunderstorm. The aircraft immediately began experiencing severe turbulence, and Woodlock made an announcement for everyone on board, including the flight attendants, to remain seated and fasten their seatbelts. At 2:34 pm, survivors describe hearing what they explain as a loud bang followed by the sound of screeching metal. Soon after, the plane began to descend. The turbulence had gotten so violent, that a small error in the stabilization of the tail lead to the tail being snapped off, causing all hydraulic systems in the plane, which control the ability to control the tail flaps and wing flaps, rendering the pilots unable to control the planes speed and not being able to control the planes ascent or descent. As the plane continued to speed forwards at 580 mph, and dropping at a rate of 1,000 feet per minute, the plane crashed nose first into the western face of Bearwallow Mountain, 11 miles northeast of the town of Pleasanton, New Mexico. Upon impact, the front half of the plane was completely destroyed and shattered into thousands of pieces, while the back half of the cabin and tail remained and broke apart from the rest of the plane, rolling 900 feet downhill before coming to a rest. As the impact occurred, sparks ignited the fuel and created an explosion, catching the remains of the front half of the plane on fire, and lighting the back half of the cabin on fire. As the rest of the cabin and tail rolled downhill, the fire was spread the hundreds of trees, shrubs, and bushes, creating a forest fire. Passengers 113 passengers flew from San Diego to Phoenix, with only 3 staying on to Houston-Hobby. An additional 162 passengers boarded the plane at Phoenix. 128 of those were of American nationality, 17 Mexicans, 8 Canadians, 5 French, 2 Chinese, 2 Australians, 1 Egyptian, 1 Chilean, and 1 Russian. There were 2 notable people on this flight; Greta Slavinsky, the only Russian on board, was a regionally famous pianist travelling to Houston for a concert. The other notable passenger was Hugh Quagmire, the founder of a regional fast food chain opened in 2019; Q's Burgers. Survivors As the aircraft slammed into the mountain side, everyone seated in the cockpit or rows 1-16 were killed instantly. Survivors report that many initial survivors were killed when the tail and back half of the cabin rolled down the hill. One survivor, 19 year old Owen Clemont, said that he saw at least 11 people still alive after the cabin had stopped rolling. However, only Daniel, 7 passengers, and 1 flight attendant were able to escape the remains of the plane before it was consumed by flames. All 9 survivors sustained injuries, with 4 being in critical condition. The Pleasanton police and fire department learned about the crash 5 minutes after it had occurred, and all 3 firetrucks and 2 ambulances arrived on the crash scene 20 minutes later. By then, 2 of the original survivors had succumbed to their injuries, and 2 others were still in critical condition. The two survivors in critical condition both died within 2 days of the crash. That left only 5 survivors, all seated in the tail or back two rows. Those survivors were: * 56 year old senior Flight Attendant Helene Goldsburg - survived with only minor burns and injuries from remaining in her seat during impact, escaped by crawling out of the hole where an emergency exit door had been ripped off. * 12 year old Emily Rindo - got trapped in the lavatory when the aircraft hit severe turbulence, and sustained 3 broken ribs, a broken left leg, 4 broken fingers, and a fractured collar bone due to her being thrown around while the tail and cabin rolled downhill. Escaped the bathroom when Helene Goldsburg heard her cries and knocked the door down. * 21 year old Daniel Stockbein - suffered a broken right leg and deep cuts in his chest, survived by being thrown out of the plane upon impact. * 19 year old Owen Clemont - was knocked unconscious upon impact and received a fractured skull and dislocated elbow, was embedded in a hole in the fuselage. Woke up and escaped before the flames reached him. * 45 year old Yolanda Asfour - suffered burns and a broken left arm, was ejected out of plane upon impact. Only non-American survivor. Investigation The day after the plane crash, an investigation was launched to find the cause of the crash. They found that two days earlier, an emergency repair had been made to multiple wires that had caught fire during a flight from Charlotte-Douglas International airport to Chicago-Midway International Airport. However, this repair was done very quickly and did not have much attention put into it. Thus, the new wires were put in very loosely. They were shaken up by multiple landings and take-offs. The take-off from Sky Harbor was the final straw, finally shaking two of the wires loose completely, but emergency power kept the radar and navigation online for an additional 20 minutes before running out. It was also found that the tail had snapped off due to a manufacturing air during the plane's development. Insufficient welding was done to apply the tail to the body of the plane, and thus the violent shaking of the turbulence was enough to snap off the tail, which had been weakened by multiple rough landings, take-offs, and turbulence in the years before. Bearwallow Fire The flames spread as the cabin and tail rolled downhill quickly moved away from the crash site and moved up the mountain, growing out of control. By July 21, the fire had reached a size of 36,000 acres. However, monsoonal moisture and precipitation helped bring the fire under control by July 28. No one was hurt or killed by the fire, but 6 outhouses were destroyed, along with 52,774 acres of land.